Bank of Industry (BoI) has disbursed micro-credit loans ranging from N50,000 to N100,000 to over 7,000 beneficiaries in Cross River under the Federal Government’s Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP). Mrs Toyin Adeniji, Executive Director of Micro Enterprise in the Bank, made the disclosure in Calabar during the presentation of loan certificates to beneficiaries in the state. Toyin said that GEEP was one of the social intervention programmes of the Federal Government executed by BoI to facilitate easy access to interest-free loans for market women, traders, farmers, cooperatives and youths.
His words “The GEEP programme is the one that touches the hands of the people and has immediate direct impact on their lives. It is also a micro programme, very easy to access and everyone is qualified to access once you are into one commercial business or the other.b”The programme is targeted at market women, artisans, youths and small holder farmers. Today, the government is giving out loans in the region of N50,000 to N100,000.bThe loans are payable over six months and they are payable in weekly instalment so that it can be easy for the beneficiaries. BoI has been given a task to make sure that this money gets to 1.6million beneficiaries across Nigeria and today we are all over Nigeria’’, she said.
Speaking further, she said that the bank disbursed about N185million to over 3,840 beneficiaries across 105 associations in Cross River in 2017. Earlier, Mrs Stella Odey, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs, said that the initiative had engaged women and youths in the state in meaningful activities. Odey said : “I must commend the Federal Government for the laudable initiative of helping our women, artisans, farmers and youths to grow their small businesses.
“Cross River state place premium on the empowerment of women; what we have seen here today shows clearly that the federal government is determined to engage the citizens in productive ventures’’, she said. One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Henrietta Ekpeyong, said that GEEP has helped them to get back to business, adding that some women were frustrated to go into business because of the high interest rate demanded by some commercial banks.
